“The last few years will likely go down as a golden age for Samsung Electronics,” Peter Burrows writes for Bloomberg News. “While Apple defined the modern smart phone with its iPhone in 2007, Samsung has been growing far more rapidly.”
MacDailyNews Take: In units sold. Big deal. How many of those Samsung units were free phones as part of endless BOGOF promos upon which the pretend iPhone peddlers rely so heavily? Apple dominates in smartphone margin and profits.
“On Sept. 9, Apple is set to unveil not only a new phone, which some pundits are calling the iPhone 6, but also details of a long-awaited smartwatch that will work in concert with the new phone,” Burrows writes. “We don’t know everything about the new iPhone, but we know this: It won’t be a good day for Samsung.”
“‘Samsung has had a few years with no real competition on larger form-factor phones, and that’s where they’ve been able to run the table on Apple,’ says Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. ‘Now that competitive advantage is going to simply disappear,'” Burrows writes. “After years of experiments, Apple will announce a payments platform so that iPhone owners will be able to buy goods at brick-and-mortar stores with a quick flick of their iPhones.”
“Apple has 800 million credit and debit cards on file with customers who have purchased items through iTunes. Apple may have to do some convincing after security concerns over hacked celebrity accounts,” Burrows writes. “If Apple executes well, it will be far more difficult for Samsung to wrest iPhone customers away. An iWallet ‘would be the ultimate in stickiness,’ says Crone. ‘It would create a tremendous barrier to exit for Apple customers and more importantly, a tremendous barrier to entry for competitors.'”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The more pain inflicted upon the Samsung copycats, the better.